Developing insecticide-treated net strategy in Tanzania

The Issue

In 2016, the Tanzania National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) and its partners requested assistance with developing an insecticide-treated net (ITN) strategy document that would describe in detail the different channels to be used for ITN delivery in the country, and provide evidence to justify the continuation of the country’s initial Keep Up Strategy, which focused on school-based distributions of ITNs instead of repeated mass campaigns to maintain high levels of ITN access.
Through PMI VectorWorks, a five-year $60 million global project aiming to scale up vector control for malaria prevention through improved distribution of ITNs, Tropical Health facilitated workshops, conducted secondary analysis, and drafted an ITN Plan for stakeholders to review.

Our Approach

Tropical Health examined datasets from independent evaluations of the School Net Programme (SNP) and Malaria Indicator Survey and Demographic and Health Surveys from Tanzania to evaluate the levels of ITN access in the SNP regions, as well as regions that had only had mass campaigns. These findings were then presented to NMCP and partners during workshops for discussion. Tropical Health facilitated discussion, in the process creating an overall outline for the ITN Plan and agreeing on key points to include in each section. Tropical Health drafted the full Plan along with with talking points and a briefing note for use with higher level Ministry of Health stakeholders.

Our Findings

Tropical Health found that the SNP was able to improve ITN ownership and access even in the first two rounds, and after five rounds, seven years after the last mass campaign, ITN access was in the range of 75-80%, demonstrating that school net distribution can maintain high rates of coverage for long time periods. The ITN Plan was incorporated into Tanzania’s Global Fund funding application and continues to inform vector control strategy in mainland Tanzania.